迟到15年的葬礼 为了911救火英雄

The printers buzzed to life in every firehouse in New York City last week, and each spit out an identical bulletin. It bore the worst sort of news the Fire Department must relay to its members, the Code 5-5-5-5. A death in the line of duty.

上周，纽约市每个消防站的打印机都开始嗡嗡作响，吐出一份相同的通告。上面是消防局必须传达给成员的最坏的那一类消息，代码5-5-5-5，意为有人因公殉职。

“With regret, the department announces the death of Battalion Chief Lawrence T. Stack,” the note read, “as a result of injuries sustained while operating at Manhattan Box 5-5-8087.”

“消防局遗憾地宣布，消防大队长劳伦斯·T·斯戴克(Lawrence T. Stack)，因在曼哈顿火警箱5-5-8087执行任务时负伤去世，”通告写道。

That box number was grimly familiar to all firefighters. It was followed by the time of the call from that box — 8:47 a.m. — and the date: “September 11, 2001.”

消防员熟悉这个令人毛骨悚然的火警箱号码 。紧跟在它后面的是从该箱打来电话的时间——上午8点47分——和日期：“2001年9月11日”。

The announcement and the “four fives,” as the code is known, had not, until now, been made for Stack for an important reason: His remains had not been found. For his family, this is the end of a frustrating and ultimately fruitless wait of nearly 15 years.

在这之前并未就斯戴克的死发出这样的公告和“四个五”，是源于一个重要原因：没找到他的尸骨。现在，对他的家人来说，这意味着近15年的等待结束了，希望最终落了空。

Stack, 58, had served almost 33 years. His funeral will be held Friday at Sts. Philip and James Church in St. James on Long Island, with the expansive pageantry and huge turnout of firefighters and officers that accompany all departmental ceremonies.

时年58岁的斯戴克从事消防员工作近33年。他的葬礼将于周五在长岛圣詹姆斯的圣斐理伯与圣雅各伯教堂(Sts. Philip and James Church)举行，消防局各部门也将举行盛大悼念仪式，组织大量消防员和官员参加。

Its timing this week, alongside the first funerals of the shooting victims in Orlando, Florida, is accidental, but weighted, bringing an added poignancy. As the country mourns the latest victims of a terrorist attack on its soil, a funeral in New York lays to rest another.

时间安排在本周，和第一批佛罗里达奥兰多枪击案受害者葬礼同期，这属于偶然，但也具有重要意义，让气氛更加伤感。在举国哀悼这片国土上距今最近的恐怖袭击的受害者时，纽约的一场葬礼将让另一名受害者得到安息。

Stack’s family came to learn where and how he perished that day. But they put off the funeral, hoping that some trace of him would be identified from what was recovered at ground zero.

斯戴克的家人后来得知了他那天去世的地点和死因。但他们推迟了葬礼，希望能从在世贸中心遗址找到的遗骸中发现他。

“Weeks turned into months,” said Lt. Michael Stack, 46, one of the chief’s two sons, both firefighters. “Months turned into years. Two years turned into five, turned into 10. Now it’s 15.”

“从几周变成了几个月，”斯戴克46岁的儿子迈克尔·斯戴克(Michael Stack)中尉说。“又从几个月变成了几年。先是两年变成五年，再变成10年。现在已经过去15年了。”斯戴克的两个儿子均为消防员。

The Catholic funeral Mass requires the presence of remains of the deceased. This requirement was satisfied, unknowingly, by Lawrence Stack, in an act of generosity 18 months before his death.

天主教的葬礼弥撒要求现场要有逝者的遗骸。劳伦斯·斯戴克去世18个月前的一次慷慨之举，无意间满足了这个条件。

“Mom came home and said: ‘There’s a little boy in East Islip, and he has cancer. I’m going to donate blood. He needs it,'” Michael Stack recalled.

“我妈回到家说：‘东艾斯利普有个小男孩得了癌症。我要去献血。他需要输血，’”迈克尔·斯戴克回忆说

Lawrence Stack joined his wife, Theresa. He added his name to the bone marrow registry as a possible donor on March 6, 2000, and, in doing so, gave a blood sample for type matching. Stack’s marrow was not a match for an immediate transplant, and the blood sample was put into cold storage.

劳伦斯·斯戴克和妻子特蕾莎(Theresa)一同前往。2000年3月6日，他把自己的名字写在了骨髓登记簿上，表示愿意捐献。在这个过程中，他提供了一份血液样本，用于配型。斯戴克的骨髓与一位须立即接受骨髓移植的受者不符，于是他的血液样本被冷藏了起来

On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, Stack was in his office in Brooklyn near the waterfront, filling out a report on a recent fatal fire that brought three Code 5-5-5-5 transmissions. That fire, in a Queens warehouse on June 17, 2001, became known for the day it happened: the Father’s Day fire.

2001年9月11日上午，斯戴克在布鲁克林滨水区附近的办公室里整理报告，是关于前不久的一场火灾的。火灾发生在2001年6月17日，导致消防系统发出了三次5-5-5-5代码。因为当天的日期，那场火灾也被叫做父亲节大火。

Word arrived at the office immediately after the first plane hit the north tower of the World Trade Center. Stack and others hurried to the roof with binoculars. They saw the second plane strike the south tower.

第一架飞机撞击世界贸易中心的北楼后，消息立刻传到了办公室。斯戴克和其他人急忙拿着双筒望远镜上到了屋顶。他们眼看着第二架飞机撞向南楼。

“He lowered his binoculars and said, ‘Guys, I think they’re going to need us,'” Michael Stack said, recalling what he has been told of that day.

“他放下望远镜说，‘伙计们，我想他们需要我们，’”迈克尔·斯戴克回忆说。他从其他人那里了解到了当天的情况。

Michael Stack hurried to the World Trade Center site that day. “I came up, and I go, ‘Oh my God,'” he said. “It was just so vast. So big.”

那天，迈克尔·斯戴克赶去了世界贸易中心的现场。“我来到这里，喊着‘啊，天哪，’”他说。“实在太大了。太大了。”

He knew from the accounts of others that his father was dead, and he returned to the pit, day after day.

他是从其他人的叙述中得知父亲去世的。他日复一日地回到现场。

“Dig and look, search, hope,” he said. “That’s what I had in mind. I’m going to find him.”

“挖、找、搜索，心存希望，”他说。“我当时的想法就是，我要找到他。”

Nothing.

但什么都没找到。

“I always wanted that department phone call,” saying remains had been found, he said. The family visited a memorial site in Hauppauge on his birthday and sang to him. But it wasn’t like visiting a grave.

他说，“我总是希望接到消防局打来的电话，”说找到他的遗体了。家人会在他生日那天去霍波格的一处纪念地，给他唱歌。但这和扫墓不一样。

Finally, last year, Theresa Stack said enough. “She drew a line in the sand where she said, ‘We’re not doing it past 15 years,'” Michael Stack said.

最终，特蕾莎·斯戴克在去年说够了。“她做出了决定，说‘已经过去15年了，我们不能再这么下去了，’”迈克尔·斯戴克说。

The Office of Chief Medical Examiner has identified 65 percent of remains recovered from the World Trade Center. The rest is damaged enough that current identification technology is of no use, and remains in storage.

首席法医办公室(Office of Chief Medical Examiner)已经确认了65%的世贸中心遗骸的身份。剩下的受损严重，目前的辨认技术没有用，至今存放在库房里。

The New York Blood Center examined its list of donors after Sept. 11 and discovered that 143 firefighters who died that day had signed up to be marrow donors, most of them while still in training as rookies. The center notified the families and set aside their blood samples; over the years, it has given the small vials of blood to some relatives. Some put the vials in their freezers at home. Some bury them at funerals, as with Firefighter Michael Paul Ragusa in 2003.

9·11事件后，纽约血液中心(New York Blood Center)检查了捐献者名单，发现有143名在当天牺牲的消防员做过骨髓捐献登记。他们中的大部分是尚在接受培训的新手。该中心通知了家属，并将他们的血液样本挑了出来。这些年里，该中心把那些装着血液的小瓶还给了遇难者的亲属。一些人把它们放在了家中的冷柜里。一些人在葬礼上把它们埋入土中。2003年消防员迈克尔·保罗·拉古萨(Michael Paul Ragusa)的葬礼上就出现了这一幕。

Theresa Stack and her sons visited the blood center last year. The center located Lawrence Stack’s blood in a storage facility in Minnesota. The vial will be buried Friday at Calverton National Cemetery in recognition of Stack’s service in the U.S. Navy.

去年，特蕾莎·斯戴克和儿子去了血液中心。中心在明尼苏达州的一处库房找到了劳伦斯·斯戴克的血液。周五，小瓶将被葬在卡尔弗顿国家公墓(Calverton National Cemetery)，这一待遇是因为斯戴克曾在美国海军服役。

"We will have someplace to go,” Theresa Stack, 71, said Thursday.

“我们以后也有地方去了，”71岁的特蕾莎·斯戴克周四说。